Should You Go To Law School? My Advice
In the past I have written articles about picking a college, which is centered on education. This article is another education related article. The purpose of this article is to help potential law students on the fence decide whether or not they should go to law school. It is not a simple or straightforward decision because it is such a big investment of money and time. If the investment for whatever reason doesn’t pan out then that time and effort could end up being a sunk cost. Plus law school is notoriously stressful and hard. Many posts on this subject do not do a good enough job of explaining why this is so. That’s where I will lean in to help you understand what law school is and has always been.
Law school is and has always been a place where people become legal thinkers. Law school teaches you many skills but understand that some skills are only applicable in law. Of course, leadership skills and many other skills can be learned in law school, but going to law school is a big investment just for just these skills. So, in fact when you sign up for law school, you are effectively saying you want to be a legal thinker, a legal writer, a legal researcher, and someone who is willing to sit for the bar exam after graduation. At least, that is what they are teaching and preparing you for in law school, the bar exam.
Before I begin, here are the main points of today’s article:
1. Strongly reconsider going to go law school if you do not love the law.
2. Remember the law school experience is to prepare you for the bar and legal practice.
3. Be reluctant of going to law school if you have no real method of paying your loans.
4. Lawyers will always be writers at their core.
5. Understand who are you are and what makes you tick.
6. Students in well ranked schools and students near the top 15% of their class are favored by employers.
7. The market for most legal positions are highly competitive.
Strongly Reconsider Going to Law School if You Do Not Love the Law.
For many people who do end up going to law school, this is not an issue. Usually, people go to law school knowing that they want to practice law but are not sure what law to practice. The reason why you need to love the law is straightforward. If you do not have an appreciation for the law, you will eventually come to dislike the work you do in law school and your performance will be affected as a result. Also, law school will test your love of the law. There will be times where you need to read 50 to 80 large pages of densely worded text to prepare for class for that day. Moreover, if you do not have an appreciation for the things lawyers have to do like, advocate, persuade, negotiate, and so-on you will be doing all this work that means nothing to you. That is not a place that you want to be.
Remember the Law School Experience is to Prepare You for Law and the Legal Practice.
If you are like I was, then you want to go to law school to become a patent attorney. Unfortunately, law school for the most part will not help you become a better patent attorney because law school is designed for you to pass the bar. The bar exam has several subjects, those are your core courses in law school. Each bar course has a very heavily weighted final exam, which is supposed to help you get use to taking bar style exams.
Of course, some schools may have patent courses, but those do not teach you the specific skills needed to be a good patent attorney. Even if there are patent prosecution specific courses that teach patent application drafting or responding to office actions, it will likely not be comprehensive enough for you to move the needle so to speak. For most, law school prepares them for their field within law, so my experience is not typical in that way.
The next aspect of this point is preparation for legal practice. A career in law is demanding, and law schools make it a priority to give you skills to be able to handle the stress. One of those methods is the socratic method, which can be done different ways, but the basic method is a professor simply asking one student questions all class long. Sometimes multiple students are asked questions in one class period, but the student selection is usually random so that students are pressured not only to do the reading but to handle the professor’s questions. This teaches you how to prepare, which is a necessary skill for a lawyer or really anyone.
Frankly, many law schools do not get the preparing for legal practice part right. My school had a class called critical lawyering skills, which was designed to teach skills that all lawyers need. For example, one skill is reflection or taking your experiences and thinking about them in a way that allows you to grow.
Be Reluctant to Go to Law School if You Have No Way of Paying Your Loans
Law school like any other degree is an investment you make. The costs of attendance vary from school to school and region to region, so pick you school wisely. Make sure you go to a school that will give you scholarships therefore lowering you cost of attendance. This is key because it’s hard to know how well you will do in law school in turn making it hard to predict the job you will get outside of law school. Your job salary is your return on investment, and this should outweigh the cost of attendance. From a financial perspective a good ROI is about 1.5 X your cost of attendance unless you decide to on committing yourself to public interest work. The US government has a loan forgiveness program that has numerous requirements, but ultimately your loans can be forgiven.
If you cannot find a path to pay off your loans for some reason this is a good reason to not go to law school in the short term.
Lawyers Will Always be Writers at Their Core
Writing is the bulk of what you do as a lawyer. The exception is the oral argument, which is based upon a brief that you write. In essence, you cannot be a lawyer if you cannot write, but if you do not like to write then why would you be lawyer. The writing you do in law is a specialized type of writing, it is not the writing that you have done in the past. It uses the IRAC framework to structure arguments. For example, I is for issue, R is for rule, A is for analysis, and C is for conclusion.
Let me demonstrate below:
The issue in this case is battery. (Issue)
Battery is the intentional and unlawful touching of another person. (Rule)
The defendant committed battery because he threw a plastic plate at the plaintiff hitting him in the arm. Although, the defendant did not physically touch the plaintiff, the plate was an extension of his hand. (Analysis)
Therefore, the defendant is liable for battery. (Conclusion)
If you to love to write then IRAC will be a great new skill to learn. Although, if you do not like to write then know you will have this drilled into you from day one.
Understand Who are You Are and What Makes You Tick.
I cannot emphasize this enough.
The reason why this is important is because if you do not understand who you are and what motivates you, inspires you, and brings you fulfilment it will be hard to make good decisions. It ultimately comes down to values. Do you value the prestige and respect the legal profession brings over things like work-life balance and possible fulfilment or sense of purpose. There is not really a right answer, but there should be an answer for you.
For me, when I went to law school I did not know myself very well. Me being an engineer, I was focused on ROI and job placement numbers instead trying to figure out whether I would find fulfilment in a law job. This is a mistake that I made that you can avoid if you do the work of trying to understand what really matters to you. Are you going to law school because you want the intellectual challenge or is about the benefits practicing law can provide you. For me, I wanted to be around the cutting-edge world of new technology found in patents, but I like most people wanted to make money as well.
Remember some motivations are more valid than others so weigh them accordingly when making the decision to go law school.
Students in Well Ranked Schools and Students Near the Top 15% of Their Class Are Favored By Employers.
Take some time to evaluate what schools you can get into, and what kind of ranking they have the grand scheme of things. Rank really matters for law schools because all law schools teach the same core things. Why would one employer hire an average student in school ranked 60th in the nation versus an average student going to a school ranked 14th in the nation. I know it’s ridiculous, but that is the way the legal profession is. That is the system. So, if you decide go to a lesser ranked school for whatever reason (location, faculty, certificate programs) I would say a good rule of thumb is the lower the rank of the school the better you will have to be ranked in your class to have good job prospects. For example, if you go to school ranked 85th in the nation, somewhere top 15% to 25% percent of the class is probably where you want to end up.
Law school is hyper competitive, so no matter what school you choose, the road will not be easy.
The Job Market Growth Rate for Law Positions is Above Average, but It’s Still Law
According to US Bureau of Labor Statistics the growth rate of the lawyers in the job market is 8%. This is above average. The consensus is that finding a job after law school is not hard if you (1) pass the bar exam, and (2) go to a good school or graduate with a high-grade point average. I want to push back on this notion. Biomedical engineering has growth rate of around 26% greatly above average and AI jobs have an even higher growth rate. Getting jobs in these fields does not require a bar exam, and at least for AI, employers care more about skills than your school. The reality for anyone entering the legal profession is that it is not going to be as many jobs as those in higher growth and more popular industries. Therefore for most students who graduate from lower ranked schools, employment is not going to be a walk in the park.
Conclusion
In conclusion, lawyers love the law and law school is designed to teach you a set of skills applicable to the legal profession. Some skills are transferable to other professions but not all skills. Keep in mind that you need a plan to pay for your education and remember that the main things you will be doing in law school is reading and writing. Additionally, understanding who you are will be a way for you to avoid making a bad decision. Lastly, where you go to school matters and job placement outcomes vary by school and by GPA.
Considering all of this, you should have better understanding of whether law school is right for you. If you find yourself apprehensive that as a good sign that you need to reflect more on your decision and seek wisdom from people who know you and practicing lawyers.
